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Updated on
November 13, 2007,
L.H.
asks from Muskogee, OK
on
November 08, 2007

Head Lice Treatment

My 2 year old daughter has head lice and i have just applied the rid treatment, but i want to make sure that it does not rehatch or just some ways to make sure my other daughters do not get it. I have no idea where she could have gotten it her older sisters which are in school do not have it nor do i. She does not go to daycare with other kids. I am puzzled and i just want some tips to make sure it doesnt return. I used the lice comb from about 10:30 until 2:00 so i am hoping that i was able to get rid of most of them. If anyone has any tips please please let me know.

So What Happened?™

First i would like to thank everyone for all your help and support! We are nit and lice free and thankfully my other girls did not get it. I used a little of all of your advice. I pray i never have to deal with it again but if i do i wont spend my money on the treatments and just hit my pantry! Thanks again!

Featured Answers

J.W.
answers from Kansas City
on
November 09, 2007

Just to add to the other suggestions. You can also use Rubbing Alcohol instead of RID or even NIX. It does the exact same thing. Also the idea of mousse or hair gel also works. They say that when you use that everyday it makes it difficult for the lice/nits to even attach because they like clean hair. Good luck.

More Answers

I personally do not like RID, I have used NIX in the past and found that going nuts cleaning every inch of your home is not only expensive, but exhausting.

Ours came from some one who visited our home (apparently infected and we weren't aware of it), not from the kids bringing it home from school (as I had school-age kids). Once you have the head lice treated, place him/her in a clean room and then when cleaning the rest of the home think about where the hair falls and vacuum that area up then clean out the vacuum immediately! I found the sprays to be a waste of money and would not personally recommend them.

Rooms with carpet or a lot of cloth furnature are the toughest rooms to clear up during the cleaning process.

Also wash all clothes that have come in contract with the infected family member.

Don't forget to follow the instructions on the treatment shampoo and continually monitor not only the infected but also the uninfected to make sure the lice don't continue to spread. Also, remember to retreat with a second treatment as the instructions state in approx. 10 days (if I remember correctly on the number of days).

If you have any problems getting rid of the lices, contact your doctor or health department for further information on how to treat head lice.

The key is to catch it early and monitor it until it is gone completely.

Move of a preventative measure in between head lice shampoo treatments:

I've also used Mayo in combination with the NIX for better results. It smells and is messy, but it works! Coat hair with Mayo, put a Walmart bag over the hair, tie the handles to stay in place, and use dawn dish soap to wash out the mayo the next morning. I did this over several days and while the kids did not like it, they liked it better than the head lice.(I had teenager girls at the time.) This was done after treating the hair with NIX and removing the head lice and nits from the hair.

Just to add to the other suggestions. You can also use Rubbing Alcohol instead of RID or even NIX. It does the exact same thing. Also the idea of mousse or hair gel also works. They say that when you use that everyday it makes it difficult for the lice/nits to even attach because they like clean hair. Good luck.

Im a hair stylist and I can tell you that the evil little things can be just about any where. They are on cloth of any sort so if she went to a movie and sat in a chair where someone had it she could have one crawl on her there. Make sure you put all your bedding (stuffed animals and pillows) that can't be washed in hot water and in a hot dryer, put them in a large black trash bag tightly sealed for a couple of weeks. Make sure you tell the husband or he will throw these away! Life is just a bummer sometimes, hang in there.

I hate to say this... but my kids are the Queens of getting head lice. Every single year... Very frustrating let me tell you. Okay, here is what I know and how to make sure that it doesn't return.
First, the lice now a days are resistant to RID.. If you use Vegtable shortening and get it on the scalp and every piece of hair. Then, wrap the head with saran wrap. Have your daughter take off all of her clothes and put on clean ones straight from the dryer. Leave this on her hair for eight, (yes eight)hours. This will give you the opportunity to scrub the entire house. Trust me when I tell you... Treat everyone!!!!!! When these little boogers hatch, they are very tiny and very hard to see. Every stuffed animal and and anything with fur or barbie hair must go into a bag for two weeks. Buy several cans of the area treatment spray. Room by room, you must strip the beds pick up anything that has been on the floor. After that room is done, close it off. No kids.. Then proceed to the next room. Vaccum the carpets..empty the bag. Do this all over the house. The kids will have to stay in the room that you will be picking nits in. The grease will allow you to easily remove every nit. The fat content of the grease kills the live bugs that will be in their hair. You will end up doing 15-20 loads of laundry. Section off the hair and go through every piece of hair. With my oldest, well lets just say it takes hours because of the amount of hair she has. Continue to check every day for atleast two weeks.
Dry all the pillows and jackets on high heat.
Every day wash the hair and blow dry it completely. Head lice do not like dry hot hair.
I am sure sorry you have to go through this.. Unfortunately, there are many of us who are pros'.
Take Care and I hope that helps!

I have a sister in law that does hair and she told me about this rememdy. You need to make sure you do not get it in her eyes. I have only had to use it one time, but I have told multiple people about it, and they have used it too. No one has had to retreat for it. Go to the Pharmacy section, and buy Green alcohol. This is just like the clear rubbing alcohol that you buy for wounds, but it is green (it is usually right next to the clear alcohol). You take the bottle and pour it on, then take a shower cap(or saran wrap) and place it over the hair after you have poured the whole bottle on and wait 20 minutes! This makes the lice where they can't breathe and kills them instantly. Then you take the lice comb and comb out. I have told several people about it, and they have done this too, and all say it is cheap and works the best. I think the green alcohol is 1.00 or 2.00. I placed my son up on the bathroom counter on his back and poured the bottle over his hair so it went into the sink. I had him hold a washcloth over his face. It stinks really bad. lol. It is soo worth it though. My sister in law calls it the poor boys rememdy. lol. If you have any questions, feel free to email me!

This is the BEST and I mean BEST way to get rid of those stupid little bugs! My daughter got lice during the very brief time she spent at day care. Since I was preg with my 2nd child the headlice treatment wasn't an option. Head lice do not like greasy dirty heads because they can not get a hold and hang on to lay their eggs. They just slid right off. Go to your local grocery and get some mayo and a shower cap. Slap the stuff in your daughters hair and put the shower cap on, make sure it is pretty snug. I pinned my daughters hair up with bobby pins so we didn't have the problem of it slidding out and getting on the couch. I then put all of her stuff animals in a garbage bag tied it real good and put it out in the garage. I washed everything else! Sheets with hot water a few times and then in the dryer and then they went in a garbage back in the garage too. I got the lice bedding spray and sprayed the heck out of the mattress, the floor and the couch. Remember if you vacume to empty the bag. You have to pretty much think of everything that she comes into contact with has to be sprayed, cleaned and bagged. If you would rather not use mayo then a deep conditionar will work just as well and will smell better. You just want something greesy and leave it on there for atleast 24 hours. Great time to rent some movies and relax...expcept for all the cleaning! I am telling you this worked wonders!
After you have gotten rid of the lice go to Wal-mart or Walgreens and get a bottle of tea tree oil, it is about $5-$9. Use a few tiny drops...I use about 5 drops for a 24oz bottle of 2 in 1 shampoo. Put that in the shampoo and that should keep them away. My middle child had a case of head lice in her class last year and I sat everyone down and gave them a nice deep conditioning and she was 1 of the few that didn't get headlice. Good luck and let me know how things went.
N.
____@____.com

You can do the same thing with very thick, cheap conditioner. There are many things to keep in mind.

It only takes 1. They are I believe it's called amorphic. Whether that's the right word or not it means they reproduce without sex as we know it.

Also, it only takes one that has crawled off into your furniture to re-infect her.

Once they hatch it only takes a day or two for them to start laying eggs of their own. They can lay 7 eggs per day and it only takes a week or so for them to start hatching.

The poor boys treatment works when you suffocate them. But something could easily crawl or jump on them the very same afternoon, night or next morning. So when my family is threatened we do the treatments with cheap hair conditioner daily until it's been at least 2 weeks since I've seen anything on any child, mine or the daycare kids. I even do it to the daycare kids. It's safer. I would hate to get alcohol in their eyes.

Gather up all toys you can not wash and put them in tight plastic bags until at least 2 weeks have gone by. That's how long they can live without drinking blood to survive.

For the moms, don't assume you are ok and don't trust a man to do the looking. Just do the conditioner treatments and after a few weeks your hair will be soft as can be.

This might sound weird but you can use mayonnaise. I have done this with my daughter. Just smother the hair in mayonnaise and then wrap her head for about 2 hours. Then wash her hair with dish soap first to help get rid of the oils. Then use a coconut shampoo and conditioner. The smell of coconut smothers the lice. I know that Sauve makes a shampoo and conditioner. You should also do the mayo treatment in another week since the eggs hatch in a week. Also the eggs that are still left in her hair will not hatch if they are 1 inch away from the scalp. I tell you I did my research on this things. I wanted to get rid of them. You should also place stuffed animals and anything else that you can't wash in a garbage sack for up to 2 weeks so that way if there are any lice on them they will hatch and die off. Well I hope that this helps you out.

My best friend ran a daycare, and one of the girls had it, but her mom didn't tell my friend till after 2 weeks of KNOWING she had it!! Needless to say, the treatments the mother was doing WASN'T working, and had infested my best friends house over this 2wk period. My son was one of her charges as well. She took all the kids and put mayo in their hair, and wrapped their heads in saran wrap. Then she cleaned the entire house etc... Good Luck! I remember in the 5th grade I got the nits, and it sucked having my hair gone through b/c it was so dang thick and long = P Hopefully it goes away quickly!!

Make sure you wash all of your daughter's linens or anything that came in contact with her head in hot water including brushes,combs,hairbands,ponytail holders. Maybe try checking online and seeing if you can find a site that might help you.

Our elementary school had a break out (major) of lice. My two kids were "blessed" twice.

I was afraid to use the chemical treatment too much and expressed my concern to a secretary at their school.

She handed me a note: Pour olive oil in your child's hair, work it in to the roots. Use some type of wrap (I used press and seal) to keep the oil on their head for 3-4 hours. The lice suffocate and if you use the little lice comb the nits will be gone. To get the oil out of their hair I used the foamy Dawn detergent. It wasn't fun but, NO chemicals.

To keep the lice away we use mousse or gel on the kids hair, lice LOVE clean hair and the gel deters them for some reason.

Looks like you got some really good advice for the lice treatment....after your "friends" are gone you could use a "tea tree oil" base shampoo 2-3 times a week. It can be purchased at a nutrition store (GNC). The tree oil suffocates new "friends" to where they don't lay eggs. Also using a gel or Aquanet hairspray helps. Blowing dry your child's hair helps too...the hot heat kills the pesty little things!!! Good luck and always remember....it's not a shame to get um...it's a shame to keep um!!!

This is not treatment but the lady that does my daughters hair told me to use this shampoo by paul mitchell it is proven to keep lice away from their hair. It is called ----tree I can not remember the first part but if u tell them about it any hairdresser should know what you r talkin about I will also look at my bottle when I am at home

Unfortunately, I have experience with this and lice can be hard to get rid of (even a mild case like my daughter had). The best treatment is mayonnaise! The school nurse recommended it to us, and I tried it after we found lice the day after the RID treatment. Coat her hair heavily in mayo and then put a shower cap on her head. We left it on for hours before rinsing. Lice can't live off the human head for more than 24 hours, but make sure to wash bedding in hot water and put stuffed animals into sealed garbage bags for a couple of weeks. No need to buy the expensive cleaners to disinfect furniture, etc. Good luck!

Hi L.~ Sorry to hear about your lice problems but I do know other moms who have had this same problem and just by switching to a different kind of shampoo will make the difference. I am sorry to hear that you had to use that chemical to get rid of the lice. Please visit www.livetotalwellness.com/cindygeoff to find out more info. in regards to this. I would be willing to talk to you more in detail about other things you could do and use as a prevention, I have lots of testimonies on what others have used and safer too. Hope that helps!

Oh my do I feel for you! My daughter had it back when she was in preschool and it is a mess. First off, call your pediatrition. Let them give you perscription for a shampoo, it will work FAR bettter than that over the counter stuff. 2nd, treat everyone, just in case. then start cleaning. wash everything in HOT water. This will take some time but I suggest putting all the laundry in big garbage bags then in the laundry baskets (it keeps it contained on the trip), then start cleaning the house....vaccumming the carpet, matresses and spray it all down with that lice spray, put all stuff animals in trash bags for a few weeks, then head to the laundry mat, you can do all the loads a tthe same time and use up their hot water, it would take anyone FOREVER to so it at home one load at a time. Then once everthing is dry, just bring it all home to fold. the mattress and carpet should be dry mostly from the lice spray. Don't foget to take activities for the kids. Spray your car for lice as well and make sure you get their coats and ANYTHING thier heads may have had contact with. It's a chore to get rid of it. But if you do it right the first time, it should not be a continious hassle. THere is a child my daughter use to hang out with a lot and their household has been battleing head lice for over a year on and off. But they even told me they do not bother to clean as good as they should because they just don't have the time. I won't let my daughter go to their house or have the friend come over here anymore. Good Luck! You'll get through it!